+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 4, Issue 19, November 2, 2005. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 19 CONTENTS. SECTION ONE: New references. What's new at the Web Design Reference site? http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/ New links in these categories: 01: ACCESSIBILITY. 02: ASSOCIATIONS. 03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 04: DREAMWEAVER. 05: EVALUATION & TESTING. 06: EVENTS. 07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 08: JAVASCRIPT. 09: MISCELLANEOUS. 10: NAVIGATION. 11: PHP. 12: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 13: TOOLS. 14: USABILITY. 15: XML. SECTION TWO: 16: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. TITLE Attribute What Is It Good For? By Steven Faulkner. Steven Faulkner shares his presentation from www.we05.com and related research. http://www.sf.id.au/WE05/indexa.html Screen Reader Software Support for the TITLE Attribute By Steven Faulkner. "This testing [ongoing] has been motivated by the desire to clarify how and if screen reading software renders text content contained within the TITLE attribute. There have been many discussions, recommendations and opinions published about the practical use of the TITLE attribute, but there has been a paucity of data to back up the recommendations and opinions expressed. This is an attempt to provide such data so that more informed recommendations can be made in the future." http://www.sf.id.au/WE05/forms.html Assistive Technology Users Test TITLE Attribute Access By Steven Faulkner. "Conclusions Drawn: 1.) Most users of screen reading software do not change their default settings to access the TITLE attribute information on links. 2.) Most screen reading software can access TITLE attribute content on form controls by default. 3.) Some screen reading software cannot access TITLE attribute information. 4.) Users of screen magnifiers can read TITLE attribute text at lower magnification levels. 5.) Users of screen magnifiers cannot read TITLE attribute text, that contains more than one or two words, at higher magnification levels." http://www.sf.id.au/WE05/survey.html +02: ASSOCIATIONS. Interaction Design Association (IxDA). "The Interaction Design Group (IxDG) has officially changed its name and organizational status. We have incorporated as the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)Ña non-profit, member-supported organization..." http://www.ixda.org/en/ +03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS is Not Hard to Learn - If You Recognize It for What It Is By Christian Heilmann. "Web design was never easy, but it can be if we start embracing the complexity of our development environment and be flexible enough to develop for it." http://www.wait-till-i.com/index.php?p=172 IE Blog: Clean up your CSS Hacks By Kimberly Blessing. "The IE Blog today issued a call to action, asking developers to help 'clean up' CSS hacks that are failing in strict mode in IE7..." http://webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2005_10.html#a000582 Call to Action: The Demise of CSS Hacks and Broken Pages By Markus Mielke. "We're starting to see the first round of sites and pages breaking due to the CSS fixes we have made. We would like to ask your help in cleaning up existing CSS hacks in your pages for IE7. It is has been our policy since IE6 that under quirks doctype we will not make any behavioral changes so that existing pages will continue to render unmodified, but under the strict doctype we want to change behavior to be as compliant as possible with the web standards. For IE7, we introduced new CSS functionality (see ChrisÕ blog post for the full list) and cleaned up our parser bugs. This leads now to several CSS hacks failing. If you are using IE7 (you are MSDN subscriber or received a copy at the PDC) you may notice major sites breaking due to the use of CSS hacks and the strict doctype." http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/10/12/480242.aspx Bye Bye Tan Hack By Dave Shea. "However, itÕs been clear for some time that * html was going to be fixed. And now today, via WaSP, comes news that IE7 is going to be fixing a whole lot of other hacks. Wording on the IE Blog (Òhow easy it is to fall into the CSS hack trapÓ) seems to indicate that IE developers are against hacks in general, so itÕs probably reasonable to assume that they'll be looking to fix any others in the forthcoming releases." http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2005/10/13/bye_bye_tan_/index.php IE7 and IE7 By Eric A. Meyer. "As noted on the WaSP site, the IE team is asking developers to clean up their CSS hacks because theyÕre causing sites to break in IE7 builds. I have to admit that this call elicited an arid little chuckle from me, because itÕs a case of chickens coming home to more than one roost. There's the fact that bugs in older versions of IE led us to use hacks, and so theyÕre making life harder for the IE team. And then thereÕs the fact that the use of hacks is an inherently risky and fragile process, so the release of IE7 will make life harder for those who used them. No smug self-superiority should be read into that second point, by the way: I quite firmly include myself in that crowd...Oh, and before people start exhorting the use of conditional comments instead, itÕs still too soon to know how good an idea that might be. Doubtless they'll come into play, but exactly how is completely unpredictable until we know what IE7 actually does. Perhaps we'll start using conditionals around the call to IE7 (the script). Perhaps not. Time will tell. As I said before, itÕs too soon to know which hacks to clear away or how to rework our code, but thanks to Dean Edwards' efforts, I'm feeling a distinct lack of stress over the impending shifts. " http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2005/10/17/ie7-and-ie7/ To Hack With It By Eric A. Meyer. "To follow up on what I said recently, thereÕs another major reason to remain un-stressed about the impending release of IE7 and the use of CSS hacks. If you read over the list of things that have been fixed, they read like a whoÕs who of CSS hacksÑand a whoÕs who of the reasons we use most CSS hacks in the first place." http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2005/10/18/to-hack-with-it/ Internet Explorer and the Expanding Box Problem By John Gallant and Holly Bergevin. "It's an unfortunate fact that Internet Explorer will always incorrectly expand any dimensionally restricted block element so that oversize content is unable to overflow, as the specs require that content to do. I will be comparing IE/win's way with the correct behavior as seen in Firefox. The W3C says a rigidly sized block box should allow oversize content to protrude or overflow beyond the edges of the sized box. There is no real 'fix' for IE/win's incorrect behavior, except to work around or avoid it..." http://positioniseverything.net/explorer/expandingboxbug.html +04: DREAMWEAVER. Teaching Dreamweaver Part 2 By Sheri German. "Part two of my Dreamweaver course series is devoted to how I teach students to create database-driven web pages and web applications. During the course of the semester we put together a form that is processed by a script, a login system based on access level that uses Dreamweaver's Authentication Server Behaviors, and a blog as introduced in a tutorial by Tom Muck. In the process, the students learn the basics of the various skills they'll use: form construction, SQL, database and web application design, and server model concepts..." http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=70A1A Introduction to Designing with CSS--Part 3: Creating Your First Design Without Tables By Adrian Senior. "Create a CSS-positioned layout of a fixed-width page with a horizontal navigation system...Note: This article has been updated for Dreamweaver 8." http://tinyurl.com/9oteq Introduction to Designing with CSS--Part 4: Creating a Two-Column Layout By Adrian Senior. "Modify the layout of your design by easily making dramatic structural changes to your page...Note: This article has been updated for Dreamweaver 8." http://tinyurl.com/aonmn +05: EVALUATION & TESTING. Too Fuzzy: Personas and Scenarios By Michael Andrews. Michael Andrews raised some concerns about personas and scenarios. http://tinyurl.com/dydv4 +06: EVENTS. OZeWAI 2005 December 7-9 2005. La Trobe University Bundoora, Victoria (near Melbourne), Australia http://www.ozewai.org/2005/index.html +07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. The User Advocate: One Size Fits None? By Dave Rogers. "As an independent contractor, I routinely peruse the latest job listings for information architecture (IA) positions. (Simply Hired makes this a breeze.) And what I see often sticks in my crawl. Too many companies seek individuals with a kaleidoscope of skills rarely found this side of Mount Olympus. You know the job listings I mean..." http://www.gotomedia.com/gotoreport/october2005/news_1005_fit.html +08: JAVASCRIPT. Variable Scope for New Programmers By Jonathan Snook. "I routinely see new programmers running into trouble with the concept of variable scope. ItÕs an extremely important concept, however, and one that must be understood in order to develop a reliable application. If you work in multiple programming languages, it can get even more confusingÑeach language has its own set of rules about how variable scope is handled." http://digital-web.com/articles/variable_scope_for_new_programmers/ Perpetuating the Myths of JavaScript Degradation By Jeremy Keith. "In many ways, itÕs easier to make an Ajax enhancement degrade gracefully (compared with non-Ajax JavaScript) because all of the processing is shifted to the server rather than the client. When the client environment is limited (by a lack of JavaScript), you can still allow your visitor access to the core functionality, which is handled on the server side. Whether that functionality is delivered through discrete updates to an already loaded page (i.e. Ajax) or whether that functionality is delivered through old-fashioned page requests simply becomes a matter for the visitorÕs browsing device. Once you can view Ajax this way, then it becomes clear that graceful degradation is built in from the start, almost without thinking about it..." http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/25 The Hows and Whys of Degradable Ajax By Ryan Campbell. "...So we've developed some solid strategies to help us use Ajax in our apps without having to worry if theyÕre essential or not to the application. After some heavy experimenting, we've developed a method for making web pages work regardless of the userÕs browser settings. While other sites have implemented their own versions of degradable Ajax, we found the lack of documentation on the subject discouraging. And so it is with great pleasure that we present to you the Particletree method of degradable Ajax..." http://particletree.com/features/the-hows-and-whys-of-degradable-ajax/ Exception Handling in JavaScript: Validating forms Introduction By Alejandro Gervasio. "Õ...I'll explain through an illustrative example how exceptions can be used to perform client-side form verification. Even when this approach can be considered as an alternative method to regular form validating techniques, itÕs worth it have a look at this implementation..." http://tinyurl.com/aj2mp Exception Handling in JavaScript: Addressing Browser Incompatibilities By Alejandro Gervasio. "Welcome to the last part of the series ÒException Handling in JavaScript.Ó As you might guess, I'm winding up this tutorial focused on exploring the huge terrain of JavaScript exceptions, by running through numerous examples about their application in real client programs. Indeed, the topic is by far more extensive than can be treated in a few articles, thus complete coverage is nearly impossible. However, I've explained in a friendly way the basics of exceptions, by introducing their core concepts as well as their direct implementation in concrete cases." http://tinyurl.com/7atsk +09: MISCELLANEOUS. What Is Web 2.0 By Tim O'Reilly. "In the year and a half since, the term "Web 2.0" has clearly taken hold, with more than 9.5 million citations in Google. But there's still a huge amount of disagreement about just what Web 2.0 means, with some people decrying it as a meaningless marketing buzzword, and others accepting it as the new conventional wisdom. This article is an attempt to clarify just what we mean by Web 2.0..." http://tinyurl.com/743r5 ItÕs Hard Being A Custodian By Robert Nyman. "Robert Nyman laments on the fact that the hard work you put into a design might all be for nothing once the client gets their hands on it." http://www.robertnyman.com/2005/09/26/its-hard-being-a-custodian/ Web Design and Development Personality Indicators By Molly E. Holzschlag. "I've had enough! Frustrated with the range of attitudes and opinions I deal with as a standards-oriented educator, I've decided to begin a project (very) loosely based on the Meyers-Briggs personality indicators. So, dear readers, I'm hoping you'll help me add and refine my categories, but I'm off to a start with the following..." http://tinyurl.com/9o5o3 Ten Questions For Jeremy Keith By Russ Weakley. "Jeremy Keith talks about the DOM, Javascript, ECMAscript, bad reputations, good and evil, learning resources, a new book, liquid layouts and more." http://webstandardsgroup.org/features/jeremy-keith.cfm +10: NAVIGATION. Value of Breadcrumbs By Jared Spool. "...Where breadcrumbs are useful is in a context we call teleporting. Teleporting is what happens when a user suddenly finds themselves in the middle of the information architecture, often because of a search result. For example, a user we observed on eBay typed 'accoustic guitar' into the search engine and found several guitars, all listed with this incorrect spelling of the word 'acoustic.' The user, realizing that there might be more guitars, clicked on the eBayÕs breadcrumbs to see all of the listed guitars, regardless of spelling. These days, where users teleport in because of Google searches and internal search requests, breadcrumbs give the user a way to find solid ground after they land." http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2005/09/26/value-of-breadcrumbs/ +11: PHP. PHP 101 (part 13): The Trashman Cometh A primer in basic security. By Vikram Vaswani. "Over the next few paragraphs, I'm going to show you some basic tricks to validate user input, catch 'bad' data before it corrupts your calculations and databases, and provide user notification in a gentle, understandable and non-threatening way. To prepare for this exercise, I suggest you spin up a CD of John Lennon singing 'Imagine', fill your heart with peace and goodwill towards all men, and take a few deep, calming breaths. Once you've exhaled, we can get going." http://www.zend.com/php/beginners/php101-13.php Core Web Application Development with PHP and MySQL, Part 2 By Marc Wandschneider. This content is excerpted from Chapter 13 of the new book, "Core Web Application Development with PHP and MySQL." http://www.webreference.com/programming/php_mysql2/ +12: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. Making it Legal: Validating Your (X)HTML and CSS By Zoe Gillenwater. "As a web designer, your goal is to create a page that works well and looks good across browsers and platforms. Validating your (X)HTML and CSS is one way to achieve this goal. Validation catches the silly mistakes and typos that everyone makes in their pages, so it's an important first step in creating a great web page Ñ but remember, it's only a step. Validation is not the end goal itself. Learn why validation is important but not the holy grail of web design, then learn how to use and understand the W3C validators." http://www.communitymx.com/abstract.cfm?cid=32429 Better Control and Cost Savings with Style Sheets By Robert Nyman. "By using style sheets you will gain better control, achieve easier maintenance and increase performance while saving bandwidth. Together with correct semantic code, you will also reach a better search-engine ranking and automatically increase your Web siteÕs accessibility." http://tinyurl.com/94d5f +13: TOOLS. Lumberjack (The Javascript Logger) Demo By Corey Johnson. " Do you write javascript? Are you sick of using alerts to find out what is happening in your code? Then Lumberjack is for you! It helps beat down the nightmare that is cross-browser javascript debugging." http://gleepglop.com/javascripts/logger/ +14: USABILITY. How Usable is Jakob Nielsen? By Frank Spillers. "Jakob Nielsen is still very popular outside the usability community. Amongst his colleagues however, his popularity has been eroding steadily. Why? There are a couple of reasons for this..." http://chinahci.org/blog/?p=89 Usability Studies 101: Forests and Trees By Joseph Carrabis. "NextStage's Joseph Carrabis shows how fixing problems with your creative design can create new problems, unless you know the right questions to ask..." http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/6614.asp Usability Studies 101: Maslow's Hammer By Joseph Carrabis. "NextStage's Joseph Carrabis lets us know that the key to a good test is finding out what really causes the subject's reaction." http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/6460.asp +15: XML. The xml Prolog, Strict Mode, and XHTML in IE By Chris Wilson. "I realized as I read through the comments to my last blog post that I forgot to mention one important item that was in my presentation. We have fixed the DOCTYPE switch so it will skip an XML prolog, so that valid XHTML can be handled in strict compliance mode rather than quirks mode. I've also been reading comments for some time in the IEBlog asking for support for the 'application/xml+xhtml' MIME type in IE. I should say that IE7 will not add support for this MIME type Ð we will, of course, continue to read XHTML when served as Òtext/htmlÓ, presuming it follows the HTML compatibility recommendations. We fixed the problem with our DOCTYPE switch explicitly so that this mechanism is easier to use, and it is generally easy to set up most servers to conditionally serve content as 'text/html' when the Òapplication/xml+xhtmlÓ MIME type is not supported. http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/09/15/467901.aspx [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +16: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility Association Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/associations Book Listings. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/books Cascading Style Sheets Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/css Color Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/color Dreamweaver Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/dreamweaver Evaluation & Testing Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/testing Event Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/events Flash Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/flash Information Architecture Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/architecture JavaScript Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/javascript Miscellaneous Web Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/misc Navigation Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/navigation PHP Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/php Sites & Blogs Listing. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/sites Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/standards Tool Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools Typography Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type Usability Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability XML Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/xml [Section two ends.] ++END NOTES. + SUBSCRIPTION INFO. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdevlist The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates. + TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN). As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN guideline information please visit: http://www.headstar.com/ten + SIGN OFF. Until next time, Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]